


Transformation

by SleepsWithCoyotes



Series: Transformation [1]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: M/M, Tentacle Sex, Tentacles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-12
Updated: 2016-03-12
Packaged: 2018-05-26 05:20:26
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6225565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SleepsWithCoyotes/pseuds/SleepsWithCoyotes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Seph gets changed. Riku gets to deal with the mess.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Transformation

**Author's Note:**

> Another from the multiverse where Riku and Sephiroth met while Riku was still working for Maleficent, and Sephiroth imprinted on Riku as substitute family. Incesty vibes and all.

The clash of swords threw sparks across the air, trails of magic and its consequences unwinding in a loosening spiral around them as they took the fight aloft. Lightning caught the tip of his largest wing, but Sephiroth shrugged it away, pinion snapping out and down and heaving him up to catch other currents while Cloud strained to follow him. Almost he wanted to laugh--Cloud's precious light had clearly made him no stronger--but the thought distracted him, dragged his eyes briefly to the ground.

He hadn't expected the Lockhart woman or real interference of any kind. Cloud was his, had always been his. He couldn't remember a time this hadn't been so.

Far below the Keyblade master stood with his face tipped up to the sky, the boy's companions flanking him in silent solidarity, but the Lockhart woman was already gone.

A host of familiar taunts hovered on the tip of his tongue-- _Alone again? You misplace your protectors quickly_ \--but before he'd quite drawn breath to speak, all at once Cloud was simply there, haloed in the flickering blue glow of pure fury.

_He remembers his Limits,_ Sephiroth had time to think, an odd hint of pride twisting his lips in a faint smile. He didn't know why he insisted on underestimating Cloud time and time again. Hadn't he helped teach him everything he knew?

When the power hit, it felt different this time. He would have thought he knew every nuance of the taste of Cloud's magic, but while the crackling bite of the darkness was still there, it wasn't alone. For a moment it was like being wrapped in summer: a breathless, golden heat that pressed in on him from every side and dragged at his wings, turned his limbs heavy and unresponsive. It was, he decided uneasily, the most disturbingly _disarming_ attack he'd ever had focused on him.

Then the pain sank in, warmth flickering to fire, digging into him as he thrashed his wings to put some distance between himself and Cloud's determined grimace. He didn't know what that attack had been, had never seen Cloud attempt it before for all his years of watching, but he didn't have to understand to feel the way the darkness inside him writhed desperately for escape. Mother was howling too, and that unnerved him more than the flailing of the dark, more than the idea that Cloud might have changed his affinity and with it his Limits. Nothing had ever hurt Mother. She was indestructible.

But she was screaming, boiling inside him, the sensation so unpleasantly strange Sephiroth hesitated only a moment before flaring his wings and bolting for the upper atmosphere where even Cloud couldn't follow him. Pain licked along his nerves, his skin prickling as if trying to creep off his bones. Foxfire blue outlined his vision as his own Limits were triggered, but for once in his life, he didn't turn to expend that energy on what had hurt him. The gathering power wasn't a comfort, not with Mother searing out with a deafening shriek, the darkness turning itself inside out and trying to take him with it, the sense of some monstrous change hovering just beyond his understanding.

Away. He had to get away, and as the first convulsion wracked him, he reached for the darkness and ripped open a portal to nowhere, anywhere, telling himself it meant nothing that he left a trail of blue-black feathers in his wake as he fell through.

***

Baked from gold to white as the tide crept out, the sand under Sora's feet was kicked up in hissing plumes as he raced headlong across the beach, grinning like mad though the pursuer hot on his heels was drawing closer by the stride. The sun hung at a cockeyed angle overhead, maybe an hour past noon, but time meant nothing on the weekends; they ate when they got hungry, slept when they got tired, and only trudged back home when someone's parents started yelling too loudly about homework and Mondays. That was the way things had always been, and it was simple rightness and an aching relief to know that two long years hadn't changed it.

Of course, it was two years later and he was _still_ running from Riku, and Riku was _still_ gaining on him, and man, it really had been wishful thinking to expect anything else, huh?

"Give it up, Sora!" Riku called out in an amused sing-song, not even having the grace to sound winded. "I called it fair and square!"

"Ah-ah! Too slow, Riku!" Sora called right back, trying not to laugh. He needed that breath for running. "Victory is mine!"

He didn't really know why he'd felt compelled to snatch the last creampop out of the box...and then run. It was that weird new flavor, icy neon blue, and he didn't even _like_ sea salt. But Riku had been staring off into space again, walking alongside Sora but a million miles away, the box of creampops they'd split on the way to the beach held like an afterthought between them.

The sea-saltcicle in its waxy wrapping was mostly melted now, but that wasn't the point. Keeping it away from Riku or surrendering it to the threat of sand down his shorts wasn't the point either. Riku pounding after him with a toothy grin and a wicked spark in his eyes was totally worth the sandburns he was going to get when Riku tackled him.

"Hey! Hey, guys!" he heard from somewhere up the beach, and Sora lost just a bit of his edge as he looked around for the source of the call, his speed bleeding away at the sound of Kairi's voice. He spotted her almost instantly, waving from where the shore started to bend in on itself, the water lightening from deep aqua to a paler shade the color of Riku's eyes. It wasn't that she didn't sound happy to see them, because she did; it was just that she sounded more relieved than happy, and there was something about the urgent way she was waving that he didn't like at all.

"Oof," Sora said as Riku clapped him on the shoulder, but it was nothing but a friendly acknowledgement, Riku's way of telling him the game was over, that Riku could've won if he'd wanted to, and now they had to get serious. It didn't entirely dislodge the hard knot of worry in the pit of Sora's stomach, but watching Riku draw even with him and then match him stride for stride put a big, stupid grin on Sora's face anyway.

The grin melted away as they got close enough to see Kairi's wide eyes, lost expression, though she didn't exactly look _afraid._ Just...weirded out beyond belief, which was weird enough on its own. Next to Riku, Kairi was the most unflappable person Sora knew, and if it ever came to a grudge match in the unflappability stakes, Kairi would probably win, because Riku wouldn't be able to resist the urge to snark. Whatever had put that expression on her face, it had to be huge.

"Um," she said as they jogged up, blinking a little and pointing vaguely behind her. "Mostly naked man on the beach."

Okay...that was actually pretty typical, but--

"With tentacles," she added, her voice carefully uninflected. "I think he's still alive."

***

Sephiroth hadn't focused on going anywhere in particular, and so he went nowhere for what felt like a long, long time. There was no way of gauging the passage of minutes or hours in the dark; he was cut off from everything, hurt and hunger fading without sight to ground him or touch to remind him of his body. Just before he lost all sense of himself, he felt the burning in his veins peak and spread, and for a moment he was back in the lab, listening to Hojo's furious curses and Mother's puzzlement buzzing like a swarm of hornets in his head. Only this time there was no Cloud, no last-minute reversal of the experiment to infect him with wings and madness and the dark, nothing but the feeling of things rearranging in ways they shouldn't.

Cloud had done this to him. Cloud had--somehow--stopped it from happening before. If he could claw his way back there, perhaps Cloud could reverse this _thing_ that was happening to him again.

It wasn't until he gathered enough awareness and urgency to attempt a new portal that he understood his error. Always before he could track Cloud by the unique signature of his soul, the odd connection they shared through the darkness, but that was gone now. Something indefinable had shifted between them, and all Sephiroth had to go on was that muddled last impression of mingled darkness and light in tenuous balance. It couldn't be that common a combination--he'd only met a few who'd ever managed it, and most of them were dead--and so he reached for that, sent his will out through the nothingness until he latched on to a soul that burned across his senses, a steady beacon that pulled him out of the comfortable numbness of _traveling_ into the heavy weight of _being._

And promptly drowned him. It was so like Cloud to hold a grudge.

***

Sora had hesitated at Kairi's side, making sure she was okay, but Riku continued past them, eyes drawn to the powerful form sprawled face-down on the sand. If the man had been entirely human, he'd have been more out of the water than in it, and there certainly was plenty to look at: broad shoulders, long arms corded with muscle, sheets of silver hair spread in sand-flecked tendrils around him. Which--minus the sand and the public nudity--was all just way too familiar, but that was crazy. In the first place, they were half the cosmos away from that Strife guy, and in the second place...well, tentacles.

They started at the man's hips, pale skin-toned appendages that fell laxly away in bewildering profusion, clearly not limited to the traditional eight. Rocked gently by the waves, they rolled and jostled against each other, deadweight, their lengths suckerless, though the undersides of the widest pairs looked tough, almost plated. When the waves rolled away from the shore, the pale limbs were reeled out nearly straight, eight feet or more at a glance.

Definitely not from around here. Riku wondered how this one had gotten though the walls between the worlds, whether they ought to take it as a fluke or an omen, and walked around to the man's other side to get a better look at his face.

High, sculpted cheekbones, an aquiline nose and a mouth that drew the eyes, pale brows that always seemed arched in mocking disbelief. Realizing that he was staring at a technical impossibility, Riku shook his head, blinked very deliberately, and narrowed his eyes when the mirage didn't melt obligingly away.

Right. Somewhere half a cosmos away, a pointy-haired blond was probably treating himself to the biggest shot of whiskey ever.

"Hey," he said, toeing Sephiroth in the side. "You'd better be dead, because I'm not carrying you otherwise."

"Riku!" Sora chided, hurrying over and--

Riku cocked a brow when Sora jumped back, Keyblade solidifying in one sun-browned hand. Glancing back down at Sephiroth--still dead to the world, though he did seem to be breathing at least--he lifted his eyes to Sora again with a smirk. "Is there something you want to tell us about you and tentacles, Sora?"

"That's Sephiroth!" Sora exclaimed by way of explanation, waving his Keyblade in the man's general direction.

"Yeah," Riku said with a shrug, "I know. Grab an arm, will you? I bet those things weigh a ton."

***

He woke to cool shadows, the smell of brine and the raucous screaming of gulls. He felt parched, scraped raw in places, a faint ache in his lungs reminding him that of all the unpleasant ways to die, he hated drowning the most. It was fortunate that he was very, very good at cheating death, his knack for survival Mother's small gift to him.

Only her voice inside him was quiet for the first time in recent memory, and when he cautiously opened his eyes, at first all he could see was blurry smears of color: grey stone overhead and too-bright eyes leaning over him, peering through a curtain of silver.

"Kadaj?" he muttered in disbelief, reaching up to push the face away from him. It startled him to feel the burn of exhaustion in his muscles, but not as much as hearing the other's quiet snort or feeling his hand knocked casually away.

"Do I look like Kadaj to you? Wait, don't answer that."

_"Riku?"_ Vision cleared all at once as his eyes sharpened, and sure enough, it was Riku kneeling at his side, shirtless and smelling of salt and sun.

"Got it in two," Riku allowed, one corner of his mouth quirking as Sephiroth continued to stare. "You could at least pretend it's a pleasant surprise."

"I was looking for Cloud," Sephiroth replied absently, trying to get his elbows under him.

"Oh, now there's a shock."

Growling wordlessly, Sephiroth forced himself up on shaky arms. "This is different."

"Uh-huh. So who cursed you?" Riku asked, clearly letting the other matter slide. "Because I'm pretty sure Maleficent's dead, and I didn't think anyone else had the guts."

Sephiroth eyed Riku sidelong with an impatient frown, waiting for that to make sense. "I'm proof against the power of curses," he said at last and watched pale brows arch doubtfully. For a long moment Riku just stared at him, and though the unblinking observation would have set his teeth on edge coming from anyone else, from Riku it was...permissible. Though he felt nothing like Sephiroth's odd, now-vanished family--had no trace of Mother inside him, however diluted--he was close enough to fool the senses if Sephiroth wished to be fooled. Loz's strength, Yazoo's brilliance and Kadaj's cocky fearlessness, and enough raw power to remind Sephiroth of himself at that age, pure darkness mixed with--

Light.

"Oh, Hel. It was you," he muttered without thinking.

Riku had just smacked him upside the head--lightly, to be sure--when the Keyblade master poked his head into the small cave Sephiroth strongly suspected he'd been dragged to.

"Oh, shit," Sora breathed with the wide eyes of someone watching a train wreck in progress. Briefly Sephiroth considered sending the boy running for the sake of his pride, but it wasn't worth the display.

"Apparently I'm chopped liver," Riku informed his friend wryly, ignoring Sephiroth's frustrated huff. "Did you get the stuff?"

"Uh...yeah?" Sora offered uncertainly, edging into the cave without taking his eyes off Sephiroth. He had a pair of white plastic bags swinging from one hand--the left--the fingers of his other hand twitching restlessly, longing for a weapon. "Er, is everything okay?"

Riku shrugged. "I'm not the one who's cursed."

"I already told you, I'm not _cursed."_

"So what's up with those, then?" Riku asked, nodding towards Sephiroth's legs.

He'd been vaguely aware that something was covering his lower half, had assumed it had something to do with his missing coat and harness. It hadn't particularly worried him--Riku wouldn't have stripped him as a prank--but a glance down at himself found him covered not by his armored coat but by a decidedly feminine-looking beach blanket printed with smiling yellow stars.

"They're paopu fruits," Riku said with a straight face and a thread of laughter buried in his voice, reading Sephiroth's thoughts with an ease that ought to have disturbed him--disturbed him more than the blanket did, at least. "And they're not what I was talking about."

Opening his mouth to demand what Riku _did_ think he was talking about, he shifted to sit up the rest of the way and watched his world crack open with the sudden flex of more than a dozen snaking limbs.

When he tried to push himself away from them, their thrashing sent the blanket flying. He saw Sora catch it reflexively before it could settle over the boy's head, but he had far more pressing concerns. They were back. He'd thought it was over, but he'd been changed again, less human, more _monstrous_ than ever, and this time there was no mad scientist to botch the job of _fixing_ him.

Tentacles writhed, knotting fiercely and digging into the sandy floor of the cave, a few lashing furiously and stiffening with a scorpion curl when Sora took a wary step back. Riku glanced from the tentacles to Sephiroth's face, understanding dawning almost unwillingly as Riku's brows arched, his smile going tense, something fierce in his eyes. "You didn't know?"

He had to get out. Out of this place. Now.

Sora cursed, dropping bags and towel to summon his Keyblade as Sephiroth lunged for the cave mouth. He would have swept the boy aside--he didn't have time to deal with the little fool now--but Riku shot to his feet and dove after him, one arm hooking around his neck from behind, the other digging its fingers into the muscle of Sephiroth's arm.

"Whoa, whoa, hold on! Seph!" Riku cried, and it was the sheer surprise in his voice that made Sephiroth listen. It sounded as if Riku was questioning his sanity, not his intentions. "Where are you _going?"_

Riku let himself be shrugged off when Sephiroth reluctantly stilled, but the 'I'm waiting' look didn't leave his eyes.

"I need to find Strife," Sephiroth snapped, fists clenching and relaxing. He would _not_ notice that his...his _appendages_ were doing something remarkably similar.

"Okaaaay," Riku said slowly, in the tone of someone bracing themselves to be the rational one. "You want to explain how that's going to help?"

"It helped _before."_

He glared at them both as Riku and Sora started in unison, their expressions almost identically surprised, though Riku's look was more cagey, Sora's almost wondering.

"Huh?" Sora managed before Riku could sort out the questions Sephiroth could see building behind his eyes.

Frustration made him snarl, his altered limbs flailing in agitation. "I don't _know,"_ he said as Sora took a wary leap back, Keyblade still held at the ready. "Hojo did something--"

"Hojo?" Riku asked narrowly, still holding his ground.

"The scientist who thinks he made me," Sephiroth growled, trying to remember if he'd ever mentioned the man before. "He--I think he was trying to make me stronger, or manipulate my Limits, or--he never said. Not after _this_ happened. Whatever he gave me, it didn't work; I started _changing,_ and it wouldn't stop--I remember him trying to put me under, and then Cloud was there, and.... He did something then, transplanted Cloud's darkness into me and--" All his memories of that time were so vague. He didn't like thinking about it, never talked about it, only now he couldn't seem to convince his mouth to stop. "It overpowered whatever Hojo had done, or changed it, I suppose; after that I had wings. But this time--"

"Wait," Sora interrupted, wide-eyed. "So you really _are_ Cloud's darkness?"

"I was _infected_ with him," Sephiroth snarled, furious all over again, only this time without that undercurrent of hunger to modulate it. This time he was what Zack would have called 'royally pissed.'

"And that's why you never leave him alone?" Sora asked, straightening from his wary crouch to fix him with a baffled look.

"Where do you _think_ darkness goes?" Sephiroth demanded, feeling like ten kinds of fool for only realizing this now and covering with a scowl of scorn. "He's in my head and my heart, and he refuses to _leave."_

"You sure about that?" Riku asked with that careful blandness Sephiroth had learned to pay attention to. "You smell different."

"Of course I smell different--I've traded wings for _these_ \--" Sephiroth reminded through gritted teeth, waving several tentacles in Riku's face.

"Not that," Riku said, leaning in closer to sniff him again. Sora made an odd sound at the sight, but Sephiroth glared stoically, eyes narrowing when Riku's snapped up to meet them. "Where's Mother?"

Oh. He said that like...like she was.....

No.

"Seph?"

She couldn't be gone. Not when she'd always been there, always, long before he'd ever heard her speak.

"Uh...Sephiroth?"

What had they _done_ to him?

"Okay," Riku said, his voice determinedly calm. "Sit. We'll work this out. Sora?"

"Er?"

"Bags, please."

"Uh...right. You want me to...?"

The Keyblade master was shuffling his feet, Keyblade still in hand, but he scooped up the bags he'd dropped and brought them over with a look half sheepish and half uncertain, eyeing Sephiroth warily.

"I'll take it from here," Riku said confidently, pushing on Sephiroth's shoulder until he sank, limbs coiling under him by fits and starts. "Thanks for the help."

"Sure, Riku. Uh...you'll call if you...?"

"Yeah." Riku grinned suddenly, and though it was strained, it looked heartfelt. "Don't forget to give Kairi back her towel, huh? And tell her it makes a great stretcher for...how did she put it...?"

"Oh, _man."_ Scooping the gaudy thing up, Sora threw a half-disturbed look at Sephiroth that painted the tips of his ears bright red, and then he was fleeing without a single exchange of blows.

Somehow he suspected he didn't want to know, and Riku didn't volunteer, sinking down to sit with him--not quite beside him, but not between him and freedom, either. Not that he needed to resort to physical escape while the dark paths were open to him. He appreciated the gesture regardless.

"Your darkness smells different too," Riku informed him without preamble, watching him with an open, curious look. "I think it may be only your own."

"I can't feel them anymore," he admitted, something inside him calming now that he only had to deal with Riku's stares and questions. "Mother or Cloud."

He could tell by the carefully noncommittal expression that Riku thought this might be a good thing, but Riku kept his opinion to himself. "So what happened?"

"We fought," Sephiroth replied shortly, irritation warring with self-conscious discomfiture. Riku hummed something encouraging, and Sephiroth heaved a sigh. "Cloud and I. Sora was there; didn't he tell you?"

"Sor--but that was weeks ago," Riku said slowly, the fierce glitter seeping back into his eyes.

"I wouldn't know; I wasn't careful when I opened a portal to...flee," he said with marked distaste, "and I floated a long time in darkness."

"You were stuck between worlds?"

"There's no time there. I didn't notice."

"That's not the _point."_

Sephiroth regarded Riku with some surprise, taking in the tension of his posture, the angry line of his mouth, the eyes both like and unlike his own raking him as if to determine whether the tentacles were the worst of it. "It's probably for the best. I felt very little of the changes as they happened, and what I remember of the first time was unpleasant at best. As for the darkness...I think he may have burned it out of me. His own. With his light."

"Cloud?" Riku asked, as if he hadn't heard right. " _Cloud_ burned his darkness out of you?"

"He's been searching for his light for a long time," Sephiroth said resignedly, inexplicably tired. "Maybe he finally found it."

Which meant that Cloud likely _couldn't_ help him this time, having no more darkness to spare him. Maybe no one could.

Riku stared at him a moment longer, but he didn't question Sephiroth's downturned eyes, his abrupt silence. Instead he turned briskly away to drag close the plastic bags Sora had brought, digging through first one and then the other. When he pulled out a bottle of something violently blue, Sephiroth merely stared.

"Here," Riku offered; Sephiroth made absolutely no move to take it. Even mako didn't look that unappetizing. "No, really. You're dehydrated. Trying to breathe saltwater will do that to you."

"It's blue."

"It's a sports drink. Just try it."

"Dare I ask what it's going to taste like?"

He wasn't sure he liked the long, slow grin Riku gave him, but he opened the bottle anyway and took a cautious sip.

He rather thought it tasted like raspberry, if raspberries could be as artificial as that eye-searing color.

_Why blue?_ he nearly asked, but what came out instead was, "I can't stay here."

"Do you have anywhere else to go?"

He could tell that it wasn't meant unkindly; Riku could be sharp, sarcastic, even arrogant on occasion, but he had unexpected depths of patience as well, and his loyalty, once given, was hard to shake. Sephiroth had tried, at first.

"No."

"Then don't worry about it," Riku said with a shrug, leaning back on his hands. "We can hide you here. We already know all the best places."

"We?" He didn't mean to sound quite so ironic, but it couldn't be helped.

Riku snorted. "I'll take care of Sora and the others," he said, the gleam in his eye warning that he just might be looking forward to it. "You just try to relax. Ever thought you might be stuck like that because of stress?"

"I haven't been thinking," he acknowledged with a distracted frown. There was a good chance that he hadn't been thinking for a long, long while.

Riku hunched one shoulder awkwardly, still leaning back, looking more comfortable than he should have been with someone more visibly monstrous than ever before. "Well, you know what they say. There's no time like the present to start."

***

Sora didn't mind admitting that he was a little freaked out by the whole situation. Harboring a guy like Sephiroth was one thing. Even with people like Cloud and Leon around, as far as Sora could tell, they'd only ever been able to hold the guy in check, and that just barely. If Cloud hadn't managed to hit him with some sort of weird transformation Limit, Sephiroth would probably still be causing havoc somewhere, showing up every so often to tick Cloud off or maybe try to destroy the world. The guy was _dangerous,_ tentacles or no tentacles.

Watching Riku attempt to braid those tentacles when the man wasn't looking...that freaked him out a whole lot more.

"I can _feel_ that," Sephiroth muttered, pulling his coils out of Riku's hands and using them to tip Riku over into the sand. Some part of Sora tensed automatically, only Riku was grinning hugely, sitting up without any particular haste, and Sephiroth had already withdrawn the tentacles anyway.

"Just checking," Riku said lightly, digging his bare feet into the sand. The tide was coming in, but they were still far enough from the surf that it reached them only rarely, and so far Sephiroth hadn't shown any affinity for getting wet. Those tentacles of his weren't even properly squid-like, smooth and suckerless, more like a nest of snakes than an octopus gone wrong. "They're tougher than I thought," Riku added, as if he'd read Sora's mind. "I mean, they're really soft, but they're strong, too."

He had to sort of hold his breath and clap a hand over his mouth to keep anything embarrassing from escaping, and he really hoped Riku would think it was laughter he was trying to stifle, because...had Riku _always_ been that oblivious? Because he knew Riku, and Riku couldn't do "innocent" if several worlds with bragging rights thrown in depended on it, so it was either that or Riku knew exactly what he sounded like, and--

Bad thoughts. Bad, bad, bad. Oh, _man._

Sephiroth just eyed Riku doubtfully, the very tips of his tentacles twitching like cat tails.

"Is that good?"

"Well," Riku said, smile growing, "at least you're not slimy. Or drippy. Or squishy."

Sephiroth growled at him, and Riku laughed. Sora wasn't sure whether he should be relieved or appalled, because at least Riku was laughing again, but sane people _ran_ when Sephiroth growled at them. Riku had clearly lost his own sanity somewhere along the way.

Still. Laughing. That was a plus, right?

"Guys!" Kairi called from the crest of the rise at their backs, waving a little as they spotted her. "Hey, guys!"

"Oh, shit," Sora mumbled, vague panic making him sit up straight. "Kairi! Naked man down here!"

"He's not _naked,"_ Kairi yelled back, planting her fists on her hips, and now he knew she was alone; if Selphie had been with her, there would have been more squealing, possibly a mad dash down the hill. "He's got tentacles!"

"Technically," Riku said with a perfectly straight face, "I guess he's naked under the tentacles...."

"Delightful," Sephiroth grumbled, primly tucking his limbs around himself. Riku didn't even try to hide the smirk that broke out at that, both teasing and friendly. Sora wasn't sure he was ever going to get used to that, Riku being friends with Sephiroth. And Sephiroth apparently letting him.

Kairi had skidded down the loose sand to join them, the only people on this stretch of beach for miles in any direction. She was dressed for swimming, a light pair of shorts worn over the bottom of her pink-and-white two-piece, and Sora didn't care what Sephiroth said, that swimsuit did _not_ make her look like Aeris. Not unless Sephiroth knew Aeris a lot better than he did, anyway. She also had The Towel slung over one shoulder--it was never going to be anything but The Towel to him, ever again--and an easy grin for each of them as she jogged over to where they sat.

"Hi, Sephiroth," she greeted, throwing herself down beside Riku. "How are you feeling?"

And he was _never_ going to get used to _that_ : Kairi apparently following Riku's lead and treating Sephiroth like...well, like a person, he supposed.

"The same, thank you," Sephiroth replied gravely, moving a few more of his tentacles over to give her more room.

Sora rubbed sheepishly at his nose, glancing out toward the tide. Wow. Now he sort of felt like the bad guy here.

***

Sitting a little ways up the beach from the tide line, Riku wrapped his arms around his legs and listened to the drone of the surf, the cries of the gulls, and watched Sephiroth attempting to reach some accommodation with his new limbs. The practice katas he ran through had clearly been modified to suit his new anatomy, but despite the wet sand and lapping waves that should have dragged at him--the ground chosen, Riku had no doubt, for how quickly the waves would wash his unusual tracks away--he was still incredibly graceful, even when he moved so quickly Riku had trouble tracking him. Sephiroth could probably go to Atlantica and be instantly mobbed by lovestruck mermaids...not that being mobbed for his looks was anything new.

Riku had mentioned that just the day before, only to have Sephiroth start muttering about torches and pitchforks.

Chewing absently on his lower lip, Riku dropped his chin to his knees with a sigh. So Sephiroth was more talkative lately. Big deal, he tried to tell himself, but it wasn't just that. Sephiroth had definitely changed, and not just in the obvious ways. He seemed calmer now, less prone to snapping, though he still had his moments. Mostly Sora had been at least half to blame for those little slips, at least until Sora decided out of the blue to lighten up and stop eyeing Sephiroth like he might suddenly remember where he'd misplaced his sword.

That didn't mean the others didn't still think Riku was suicidal for teasing the man, but he knew Sephiroth. He could tell when the teasing would be met with tolerance instead of irritation, had a pretty good idea of how far it was safe to push. It helped that not once had he seen that _other_ look come into Sephiroth's eyes, cold and fierce and hungry, looking for something soft to sink its claws into. Sephiroth's body might have gone mad, but at least his mind was finally in full working order.

Even so, Sephiroth didn't look _happy._ Riku guessed he could see that. Tentacles aside, it couldn't be much fun, hiding from the universe in a bare little cave, impossibly far from anything familiar. Even Riku, who found the islands all too familiar, felt half-crazy some days from the nagging sense of being stuck in a place where he had no purpose at all, just an endless string of too-similar days. And that was all his life had been before: going to school, hanging out with his friends, dreaming of escaping to somewhere better. He couldn't imagine how much worse it must be for Sephiroth, who'd had a purpose...at least before some mad scientist's experiments had messed him up almost too badly to fix.

Uncurling his arms, he stretched his legs out before him and leaned back on his hands, watching Sephiroth spin and strike, retreat, advance. He had a paper for History waiting for him at home, three chapters of a novel to be read by the end of the week for English. He should probably go and at least pretend to work on some of that rather than spend so much time worrying about Sephiroth, who could take care of himself.

And who was quietest in the mornings, almost every morning, and sometimes it took a while to bring him around to his usual wry, reserved, occasionally-prickly self. The shadowboxing thing had worried Riku at first, but Sephiroth never went resigned on him, never seemed to give up on the idea of changing himself back. It was just that none of them had the first idea where to start on that, not even Sephiroth.

The training was probably a good thing, preparation for when Sephiroth had to leave the islands to go searching for a cure. And maybe he just needed a distraction to take his mind off what he couldn't yet fix.

"Hey," Riku called, rising and dusting himself off before making his way down to the waterline. Sephiroth paused and turned, looking a question at him, but he didn't seem too annoyed at having his workout interrupted. "Want to spar?"

He waited it out as Sephiroth's look turned considering, as measuring as if they'd never done this before, not really surprised when Sephiroth gave in with a nod. He didn't expect Sephiroth to thank him in so many words; the swift glance he was given, the one that no longer questioned his sanity, his intelligence _or_ his motives, was gratifying enough.

***

"Oh," Riku groaned, and Sephiroth smirked, shifting his coils just so. "Right there. That's--" A yawn, barely contained behind one lazy hand. "--perfect."

Sephiroth snorted, eyeing the lanky figure curled up on his tentacles with an ironic half-smile. Riku rather reminded him of a cat that had just kneaded every sheet and blanket on the bed and all of the pillows besides into the perfect configuration for a nap, and who now showed no inclination to move whatsoever.

"I'm so glad I can be of assistance."

"Serves you right," Riku informed him without cracking open an eye. "I said 'spar,' not 'wear Riku out.' It's these guys' fault," he added, patting blindly at a tentacle. "They can make it up to me."

"Just like a cat," Sephiroth muttered, only to watch Riku's wounded look dissolve into a smug grin.

"That's what they all say."

He wasn't quite certain why it didn't disturb him to have Riku nestled down in his new limbs. He'd found that he didn't like having them touched--didn't like touching them himself--but Riku's very presence was so tied up in a trust and goodwill he'd long thought lost to him, it was almost something outside touch entirely. Riku wasn't like Mother's children, the ones she'd made--or had Hojo make--and gave to him as uncomfortable presents, their devotion to him hardwired from the beginning. Riku had his own darkness, but it was inextricably linked to his light, and it didn't drive him anymore now that Ansem's--Xehanort's--ghost was gone.

Maybe that was why he'd felt almost like his old self again since coming here. Maybe having only his own darkness--strong and powerful, true, but purely and undistractingly _his_ \--had made the difference.

And Mother. Mother and her...less than tolerant views on the rest of the universe gone as well.

"Riku," he said, jostling his coils a little as Riku's breath evened out a little too slowly. "You're falling asleep."

"Mm. 'Sokay," Riku mumbled, shifting until he found a new comfortable spot. "Mom thinks I'm at Sora's."

"And does Sora know where you are?" he had to ask, amused despite himself.

"Uh-huh. He says I'm a pervert."

Sephiroth smirked, stifling the chuckle that tickled the back of his throat out of habit. He was pretty sure Riku hadn't meant to say that out loud, but then again, one never knew with Riku. And what precisely was he expected to do with a lapful--in a relative sense--of innocently-sleeping teenager?

He could think of one thing, but that was...before, and had no bearing on the present. Though he didn't expect to sleep himself, he rolled Riku up more comfortably in his coils and dug himself into the nest of blankets and pillows Riku and his friends had amassed for him, closing his eyes to the sound of Riku's steady breaths.

It shouldn't perhaps have surprised him to wake with the dawn, his face buried in silver hair only a shade darker than his own. The arm he'd slung around Riku's middle pulled Riku back against his chest, his coils all but knotted around Riku's legs, hips, spiraling up one arm. It shouldn't have surprised him, but it did, and he found himself going very still, wondering how he could possibly extricate himself before Riku woke up and panicked.

Far from panicking, Riku groaned a long, sleepy sigh of utter contentment and settled back against him, nearly falling asleep again before Sephiroth reminded him it was Wednesday. That woke Riku up quick...and still he didn't panic, patting absently at too-friendly tentacles as he yawned and stretched.

"Heh. I knew you'd be a cuddler," was all he said, tossing a friendly grin over his shoulder even as he was pushing loops of coils down, squirming out of their hold like escaping from a particularly clingy sleeping bag, with about as much haste.

It was apparently Sora's turn to bring him supplies for the day, which was odd if not unwelcome. He'd been bracing himself for Selphie. It did put him on his guard to find Sora watching him with a hint of his previous distrust, especially when it came accompanied with a long, assessing look he was more used to seeing on Riku's face.

When that look faded, replaced by one of the boy's rather astonishing grins, he found himself as puzzled as he was suspicious.

"You've got scrunchy brows," Sora informed him, tapping the bridge of his own nose when Sephiroth threw him a confused look. "Don't tell me: Riku left here with something cryptic that's going to drive you crazy all day."

Sephiroth stared. "How did you two ever become friends?"

That modulated Sora's grin, but it only turned it soft, even fond. "Who else would put up with us?"

Which gave Sephiroth two things to think about.

***

Sitting on her towel--The Towel, as Sora insisted on calling it--Kairi added a last coat of sunscreen to her arms as she watched Riku and Sephiroth playing on the beach. She knew perfectly well that Sephiroth would probably insist on calling it 'training,' but that didn't change the fact that Riku was clearly making a game of dodging tentacles, pausing only long enough to throw off a few breathless taunts whenever Sephiroth missed. And Riku could move like an eel dipped in hot oil when he felt like it; the real surprise was whenever anyone stopped staring long enough to attack him.

She glanced over at the sigh on her right, but Sora was sitting quietly on the sand beside her, watching the two by the water like he both wanted to join in and didn't. At least he'd gotten more comfortable with the idea of having Sephiroth around. She didn't know what Sephiroth had been or done in the past, and she didn't need to know. She knew he had darkness in him, and quite a lot of it; she could sense it in him as clearly as she could sense it in Riku. And if that meant Sephiroth wasn't worth a second chance, she'd have to hold Riku to the same standards, and she wasn't about to do that. Besides, Riku trusted him.

Which still bothered her, to be honest, because she hadn't been sure of Sephiroth herself at first, and it seemed like she ought to have known better--what good was being a Princess of Heart otherwise? She'd been okay with faking it in the beginning, but Riku just seemed so...at ease around him, and it hadn't seemed right to keep treating the man like a stranger that might bite. Riku might not be as outgoing as Sora, but he was serious about his friends, all of them. And sometimes....

She smiled to herself, remembering how surprised she'd been when she'd realized the one Riku was jealous of was her, not Sora. She'd even thought she'd known how everything would turn out when Sora finally found him again, considering how desperately Sora had searched. She'd been...well, she'd been okay with it, if you didn't count the part of her that had wondered, squirming with embarrassment, whether they could have worked something about between them so that no one had to be left behind.

Only Sora _still_ hadn't seen it, and maybe it wouldn't have mattered if he had, because while Sephiroth might be refusing to see for reasons of his own, Riku's heart was still right there in his eyes for anyone with the sense to look.

"Ha!" Riku shouted as he leapt over a snaking limb, backpedaling swiftly. "Too slow, old man! You--ack! _Cold!"_

Kairi giggled to herself as she watched Riku duck a spray of water lashed his way by a lightning-fast tentacle, only to do a crazed little dance as the tip of one wave-damp coil slithered ticklishly down the back of his neck. Even Sora snickered, the wistful look fading from brightening eyes, and she reached over to ruffle a now-dry hand through his hair. He yelped, but he didn't quite try to get away.

"What was that for?" he asked, giving her a mock-pitiful look.

"Nothing," she said with a grin.

She'd give the others a few minutes, she supposed. Then she'd go over there and tackle Riku into the surf.

Sephiroth could play blind all he wanted, but she had no qualms about improving the view.

***

Though the rain was coming down hard outside, soaking the gritty earth and whipping the waves to foam, it was dry inside the cave set high above the tide-line. He knew Riku felt guilty about what he perceived as Sephiroth's reduced circumstances by how frequently attics and basements were brought up. He'd considered more than once describing both his command tent in Wutai and his childhood in the labs. What kept him silent was his uncertainty as to how Riku would react. Zack, for instance, had not reacted well at all.

It was Riku who'd brought him lunch that day, a lazy Saturday with nothing to do once the rains settled in, the first warning that fall was approaching. Though Riku had brought his own lunch as well--thick sandwiches for the both of them and soup in a thermos--he didn't seem very interested in it, picking at his food and then offering the other half of his sandwich to Sephiroth. And now he was staring out at the rain with the stillness of utter preoccupation, his unfocused eyes glazed with a distant longing that reminded Sephiroth too much of himself.

"What is it?" he asked when the silence had gone on too long and watched Riku start, coming back to himself with a blink.

"Huh? Oh. Nothing."

Which was clearly a lie, but the instant fury he might have felt a month ago failed to materialize.

"Cabin fever, I guess," Riku said after a moment, not quite meeting Sephiroth's eyes. "If the cabin's as big as an island, that is."

"I thought you loved this place." He wondered what had changed, precisely what it was Riku was tired of.

"It's home," Riku said simply. "But it's not the only place I ever want to see."

"Why don't you travel, then? You spend enough time outdoors; who would notice?"

Riku gave a quiet huff of laughter, but there was no real humor in it. "Yeah, well...I would, but I can't use the dark paths anymore. I guess my light got too strong."

"I'm sorry," Sephiroth said as that sank in. He had chosen to stay out of pragmatism himself--he wouldn't call it fatalism, even if all places _were_ one to him at the moment--but if the choice had been taken from him entirely--

This time Riku's laugh was more genuine, though just as quiet. "You're the only person I know who could say that, mean it, and not be creepy about it," he said with a faint smile.

"Hn."

"Thanks."

Sephiroth hesitated, but Riku went blithely back to his sandwich, popping the last crust into his mouth and washing it down with one of the outlandishly-colorful drinks he seemed to favor. If he wasn't going to ask, there was no sense in offering. But.

"I could take you," he heard himself saying, his voice noncommittal.

Riku's brows went up with a jerk, but he shook his head without pausing for thought, one corner of his mouth tipping up wryly. "Thanks, but no thanks," he said, reaching over to... _pet_ one of Sephiroth's tentacles; there simply wasn't another word for it. "Not like this. People are morons."

"Yes," Sephiroth agreed with a sigh, not looking forward in the slightest to the questions, the stares, that he knew would follow him once he left. He was accustomed to being feared for what he'd done, knew himself more than capable of doing it again--capable, but disinterested. Being feared for what he was, on sight...not so different, he supposed, from his life before, merely on a larger scale. Riku and his strange friends were an anomaly he was...grateful for.

Half resigned to being pushed away, Sephiroth let a few tentacles drift out to coil around Riku, and when he wasn't instantly rebuffed, reeled them in and Riku with them. Riku leaned back against him without hesitation, but then again, Riku never had been afraid of him, that fearlessness at least as tempting as all the rest.

"I'm almost sorry I don't still have wings."

Riku grinned. "I don't mind."

It'd been different before, the quick work of hands and mouths between distasteful errands and private goals, hunger and need and no time to worry about anything else. Sephiroth hadn't cared about Riku's age, and Riku hadn't cared about Sephiroth's past; it'd been enough to build a friendship on in the end. He hadn't been blind to the way Riku looked at him. He simply hadn't expected it to last.

As Sephiroth bent down towards him, Riku tilted his head back to meet him, paler eyes glittering with smug anticipation, clearly glad to be done with patience. He had the vague thought that if Sora were to come upon them now, the boy might well rethink his resolution to leave well enough alone, but he didn't care about that either. Of far more interest was the contented purr Riku made as lips parted automatically, letting Sephiroth in, and _this_ hadn't changed at all. Riku was still hungry for him, despite the fact that there was no particular urgency this time, no reason to hurry things along.

When he stroked one hand down the flat muscle of Riku's stomach, Riku shifted to cover Sephiroth's hand with his own, tacit permission in the glide of his fingertips over Sephiroth's knuckles, the way he reached up to wrap his other hand around the back of Sephiroth's neck. Sephiroth could almost forget that anything at all had changed, only if he'd thought he had his new appendages under control, he'd been wrong. They were moving now of their own volition, twining around Riku's legs, his hips, tightly enough to forestall even the most panicked of struggles.

He didn't think Riku intended to struggle. Instead Riku sighed a slow, pleased hum into his kiss, lips curving against his mouth, and he knew if he looked now, he'd find Riku giving him a smug, satisfied smirk that asked what exactly the delay had been. But then, the one thing he'd always been able to count on was Riku being certain.

Sephiroth's breath caught when knees pushed against his coils, flexing outward, Riku's legs spreading in clear invitation. He might have taken that hint if Riku had ever offered before, if there'd ever been time, but he was _very_ changed, and Riku was sometimes too fearless for his own good. Sephiroth didn't entirely grasp how his altered anatomy worked in the first place; he'd only just learned to his satisfaction that he could still _fight_ with it.

"Sephiroth," Riku murmured as Sephiroth leaned his brow against the back of Riku's head, trying to convince his limbs that they wanted to relax, release. "It's okay. I want you to."

"You don't know what you're talking about."

"Well, no. I won't until you show me," Riku replied with flawless logic, "so why not?"

"It's not--" His limbs weren't listening to him, inching up Riku's thighs now, the tips slithering slowly and apparently ticklishly inside the loose legs of Riku's blue swim trunks. "It's not that simple."

"It's...it's all right," Riku said, the break in his voice having nothing to do with second thoughts. "We'll figure it out. I trust you."

He was careful to use his human hands as he pushed Riku's trunks off the sharp blades of his hips, tentacles grabbing automatically and pulling them the rest of the way down. He had a vague impression of them being flung to the other side of the cave, Riku's breathless laugh turning into a groan as Sephiroth wrapped a hand around his cock--already hard--and began to stroke.

"Nn...this had...better not be a tease," Riku warned, eyes sliding mostly-closed as he leaned back more bonelessly still.

"Hush." As if Riku would follow _that_ order in this lifetime.

"Whatever...you say, Seph...."

He kept things slow and deliberate, Riku's hips rocking upward in short, sharp jerks, using the hand still hooked around Sephiroth's neck for leverage. The coils had just enough give to let Riku move, holding him lightly, as if they knew he wouldn't try to get away. They were still tight enough to keep Riku from thrusting the way he'd like, and the frustrated groan that echoed through the cave as Sephiroth pulled his hand away made him smile.

"Are you sure?" he asked, both hands on Riku's hips, thumbs stroking the arch of narrow bone.

"Yes. Come _on,_ already."

"All right," he said, nuzzling absently at Riku's ear, the thick silk of his hair, the better to fill his senses with Riku's distinctive scent. "But you'll have to help."

Riku made a questioning sound, but it faded as Sephiroth pressed two fingers to his lips and watched intently as Riku sucked them in. Though he worked them in and out of the heat of Riku's mouth himself, Riku's enthusiasm showed in the caressing slide of his tongue as it twined around Sephiroth's fingers, slicking them wet as Riku's breath went sharp and heavy. Even when Sephiroth's coils tugged Riku's knees open wider, slid under his hips and lifted him until only his shoulders remained braced against Sephiroth's chest, Riku only let his eyes fall completely closed, relaxing into Sephiroth's hold with a half-heard moan.

The shuddery sigh Riku gave as his mouth was emptied at last made Sephiroth's coils clutch tight in response, but that was nothing compared to the sound Riku made when Sephiroth began to open him up, careful and methodical. Stroking, circling, he waited each time for Riku to nearly lose all patience with him before continuing, pressing in shallowly, then deeper. Riku's curses he ignored--in _this_ he knew what he was doing, refused to be rushed--but he was...not entirely willing to entertain what he suspected the next step would be. He didn't completely have control of the things now.

"Riku--"

"Seriously, Seph," Riku warned. "Make me beg, and I'll make you sorry."

He half expected Riku to change his mind dramatically when one coil snaked up his chest and rubbed catlike against his cheek, but Riku just turned his head and opened his mouth, tongue flicking out to draw a hot, wet path up to the tip before taking it inside. It was different, incredibly different, but familiar all the same: the hot suction of Riku's lips, the curl of his tongue, the way he tipped his head back and let Sephiroth fuck his mouth, breathless and groaning.

Naked, spread out for him, he'd expected Riku to look more like Kadaj, even Yazoo, but Riku was too thoroughly himself. Yazoo would never have enjoyed himself so openly, and Kadaj wouldn't have slid his hand down to thread his fingers around the bases of Sephiroth's tentacles, trying to discover what he liked rather than assuming he'd demand it, take it, if he wanted it. Breathing hard as Sephiroth slid free of his mouth, Riku tensed a little, knowing what was coming, but Sephiroth's lips against his throat made him relax, even when Sephiroth pulled his fingers most of the way out, spread them slowly apart, and pressed the tip of his spit-slick coil slowly inside.

Riku's breath caught, his body jerking taut and mindfully unclenching as Sephiroth slid deeper. He didn't fight, but it was clear his body didn't quite know what to do with itself, one set of instincts urging _away_ as another confusedly suggested _towards,_ as if having it over more quickly would help. Sephiroth was more concerned with not damaging him; he knew Riku would--

"Oh fuck, Seph, do that-- _that_ \--ah...." Riku breathed, the change instantaneous as he decided he liked this after all.

For the first time he was grateful he had the extra limbs. It gave him more to hold on with when Riku decided he was going to _move._

He wasn't certain later who decided a change was in order or how Riku came to be straddling what would have been his hips, kissing him hungrily even as he was being rocked by Sephiroth's thrusts. The unobstructed view of the glazed look in Riku's eyes was reward enough, as was the restless stroking of strong, square hands over his skin, the half-desperate press of Riku's cock against the muscles of Sephiroth's stomach. When Riku pushed himself up, fingers biting into Sephiroth's shoulders as lean hips ground down, he sped his stroke, watched Riku stiffen and cry out, and then he was being turned inside out, coming hard, black pinpricks spreading at the corners of his vision and bleeding together at the edges.

Instinct made him tighten his arms as Riku simply collapsed on top of him, breathing as if he'd just run a race and grinning as if he'd won it as well. "Seph," he managed, and then seemed to forget what he was talking about, which was likely for the best.

"So glad you approve."

"Well, I didn't say _that._ Wake me again in ten to do it over, and then I'll let you know whether I approve."

Sephiroth let a huff of laughter escape, but he couldn't mistake the serious tone beneath the teasing. _Again._ He thought he wouldn't mind that. At least he knew he hadn't scared Riku away; he was beginning to think it wasn't possible. Perhaps it was a Keyblade master trait: courage in the face of the alien.

"Perhaps," he said, but he could feel himself dropping off as well, unaccountably exhausted. Or...maybe not so much tired as relieved, a burden he hadn't been aware of carrying lifting from him as Riku settled down quite comfortably for a nap, grinning still.

It wasn't quite a surprise to wake to find Riku sitting on him, straddling his stomach and poking one blunt finger into his chest. His foggy mind tried to explain away Riku's mock-accusing stare as a warning that they'd slept much longer than ten minutes; he wasn't quite certain what to make of Riku's puzzling words.

"You said you weren't cursed."

"We've been over this," he grumbled, more patiently than he really thought the subject was worth. "I'm not cursed."

"Then why did that fix you?"

_Fix...?_

"What?" he demanded, sitting up fast. Riku didn't bother to climb off him, smirking a little when he was pulled closer, Sephiroth peering past him to see--

Legs. He had legs again. Not a tentacle in sight.

"I don't--" He'd barely felt a thing, although he barely ever fell asleep after sex, much less passed out, and his last conscious memory was of his vision narrowing down to a bright, constricting tunnel. Then what Riku said sunk in, and he pulled back to eye the younger man uncertainly. "I think you're mistaking that with true love's kiss."

"A _kiss?"_ Riku repeated incredulously, and Sephiroth found himself reminded yet again that for all their resemblances, they'd come from different worlds entirely. "What kind of fairytales have you been reading?"

"The expurgated kind, apparently," he said dryly, not needing to hear Riku's half-amazed laughter to confirm the suspicion. "And I don't know why that worked. Maybe it simply ran its course. Or maybe--"

"Maybe you calmed down enough," Riku offered sensibly, "for that Limit of yours to finally ease up. You've been burning a lot of magic lately too, or at least that's what it smells like. You've got so much of it, I wasn't sure."

Was that what it had been? An unusually persistent Limit? "Then Hojo actually succeeded," he murmured, lip curling in belated disgust. He couldn't be sure, of course; Hojo wasn't in the habit of explaining his aims to his experiments, but he did think he remembered the scientist mentioning something about improving upon his Limits. Perhaps if they hadn't all been so quick to panic, none of what followed would have happened. Cloud wouldn't have been experimented on; Zack wouldn't have assumed the worst. And he...well. Mother would have driven him mad eventually, but not like _that._

And the Heartless would still have come, only without his particular brand of madness, he might not have seen anything interesting enough in Riku to stay for that second glance. And that, he thought, would have been a great pity.

"Hm," Riku said, but he sounded preoccupied, looking wistfully over Sephiroth's shoulder. "No wings."

His lips twitched, but he managed to avoid smirking by the narrowest of margins. "I never needed them," he admitted, watching curiosity light Riku's face. "They only made me more conspicuous."

"Really?"

"Shall I prove it?"

"Oh, hell, yes," Riku said, grinning hugely. "I always wanted to fly."

He thought briefly about suggesting clothes before remembering he didn't have any. Which wouldn't make him conspicuous at all. Then again, considering the deluge outside, it wasn't likely anyone would notice.

"You don't mind getting wet?"

"I live on an _island."_

"Very well," he said, urging Riku to let him up so he could stand. "Come on."

There was something alarmingly comfortable in the easy way Riku's hand slid into his, but he wasn't going to think about it now. Time enough to worry about it when he truly did have to leave, when he'd have to decide whether he was going for good, going alone. He didn't miss the three..."presents" Mother and Hojo had given him, but he would miss Riku.

And perhaps, in the meantime, he'd inquire about those fairytales Riku had mentioned. They certainly did sound more intriguing than the ones Zack had inflicted upon him in the name of making up for his lost childhood, though he suspected Riku would make a perfectly terrible damsel in distress. For one thing, he'd want to rescue himself. And for another--

His smirk softened briefly into a smile as Riku left him to go plunge out into the rain all at once, preferring to get immediately drenched rather than feel his way out little by little.

But that was Riku all over.


End file.
